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A SHABBY GENTEEL STORY 81
" Indeed you do me a great deal too much honour. Miss—ah,
—Miss Gann is a very respectable young person, and I would not
for the world have you to suppose that I would do anything that
should the least injure her character."
At this speech, Lord Cinqbars was at first much puzzled ; but,
in considering it, was fully convinced that Brandon was a deeper
dog than ever. Boiling with impatience to know the particulars
of this delicate intrigue, this cunning diplomatist determined he
would pump the whole story out of Brandon by degrees ; and so, in
the course of half-an-hour's conversation that the young men had
together, Cinqbars did not make less than forty allusions to the
subject that interested him. At last Brandon cut him short rather
haughtily, by begging that he would make no further allusions to
the subject, as it was one that was excessively disagreeable to him.
In fact, there was no mistake about it now. George Brandon
was in love with Caroline. He felt that he was while he blushed
at his friend's alluding to her, while he grew indignant at the young
lord's coarse banter about her.
Turning the conversation to another point, he asked Cinqbars
about his voyage, and whether he had brought any companion with
him to Margate; whereupon my Lord related all his feats in
London, how he had been to the watchhouse, how many bottles of
champagne he had drunk, how he had "milled" a policeman,
&c. &c.; and he concluded by saying that he had come down with
Tom Tufthunt, who was at the inn at that very moment smoking
a cigar.
This did not increase Brandon's good-humour; and when
Cinqbars mentioned his friend's name, Brandon saluted it mentally
with a hearty curse. These two gentlemen hated each other of old.
Tufthunt was a small college man of no family, with a foundation
fellowship ; and it used to be considered that a sporting fellow of a
small college was a sad raffish disreputable character. Tufthunt,
then, was a vulgar fellow, and Brandon a gentleman, so they hated
each other. They were both toadies of the same nobleman, so they
hated each other. They had had some quarrel at college about a
disputed bet, which Brandon knew he owed, and so they hated each
other; and in their words about it Brandon had threatened to
horsewhip Tufthunt, and called him a "sneaking, swindling, small
college snob;" and so little Tufthunt, who had not resented the
words, hated Brandon far more than Brandon hated him. The
latter only had a contempt for his rival, and voted him a profound
bore and vulgarian.
So, although Mr. Tufthunt did not choose to frequent Mr.
Brandon's rooms, he was very anxious that his friend, the young
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